Has any atheist lost a job due to being an atheist?
In 1963 I was fired for teaching evolution in my 10th grade World History Class in Birmingham, Alabama. I taught it twice during the course: once at the very beginning and once again describing the effects of
modern scientfic thought, including Darwin's, during the 19th and 20th centuries. I left Alabama in disgust. From what I read in the papers Alabama hasn't changed a bit since 1963. Their state motto ought to be "Laughingstock of the World!" During the intervening years my bitterness abated because fundamentalism seemed to be relegated to flourish only in such backward, benighted hell-holes as Birmingham and Nashville. But, "We've scotched the snake, not killed it," as the bard says. The recent upsurge in right-wing, loonie, fundamentalism illustrates that bad ideas may never die. There will always be plenty of people willing to exchange their brains for peace of mind, whether they are Alabamans filling their heads with fundamentalist grits instead of brains or Californians swapping theirs for the guacamole dip of New Age obscuritanism. The forces of irrationality are relentless and determined to wear us down. I learned the hard way: don't give them an inch! Don't let a single idiotic statement go unchallenged. If you do, they gain power, incrementally. When they get enough power you can expect them to use the power of the state, brute force, mob rule or whatever it takes for them to impose their ideas.
(doubtingthomas #1040)
Not yet. Lost a bunch of "friends", though. (erikc #2)
Not to my knowledge. In the for-what-it's-worth category, I've
hired fundamentalist Christians. (paul hager)
Nope. You know, in the past year or so, I've discovered there are
quite a few agnostics/atheists among my coworkers. It's quite refreshing.
(Paul J. Koeck, #360)
Sometimes things get weird at lunch room discussion (i.e. cloning, birth control). I mean, I work with a Hindu, a Muslim, a Catholic, a Xtian of some other kind, a Buddhist, a Sikh and one other atheist, so you can imagine the variety of viewpoints.
Mostly, though, no one cares around here. (Greg Gyetko #911)
I have not. And I have never heard of anyone who did here. In Sweden
it is not as big issue as it seems to be in other places, the bible belt
in America comes to mind. People here are mostly very considerate and it
is not often you hear someone condemn someone else for his beliefs. But
we are rather secularized, though we got our sects and churches like most other countries. (Ichimusai #769 )
I got in some trouble at work last summer for saying "strange things" (like: you don't
really believe in that stuff do you?). However, when it dawned on them that I was the only
person who could get the computer system to work, they decided to keep me. (Lisa Star #190)
